minor premise

British  

noun

1. logic the premise of a syllogism containing the subject of its conclusion

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Example Sentences

“And all teenage boys are human beings. That is my minor premise, controversial though it may be. And if my major and minor premises are so, sir, what is your conclusion?”

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

The reviewer says, that if the major premise included the conclusion, “we should be able to affirm the conclusion without the intervention of the minor premise; but every one sees that that is impossible.”

From A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive by Mill, John Stuart

The premise which contains the middleterm and the major term is called the major premise; that which contains the middleterm and the minor term is called the minor premise.

From A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive 7th Edition, Vol. I by Mill, John Stuart

Here we clearly have, in the minor premise, only a verbal proposition; to be a dog is certainly part of the definition of 'pug.'

From Logic Deductive and Inductive by Read, Carveth

If both observations are correct, then we need no proof that the man of the minor premise is rational because it is self-evident.

From What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul by Swain, Richard la Rue